Ethan Setiawan’s Personal Encyclopedia Mandolinnica

A short history of the mandolin in America: The mandolin is essentially a small lute which has been around since the 1300s. Italian immigrants brought bowl-back mandolins to the States in the 1800s. Mandolin orchestras were big in the 19th and 20th centuries, believe it or not. In fact, a whole mandolin family exists with mandolas, mandocellos, and mandobasses out there.

Around the turn of the 20th century, Orville Gibson started to develop flat-backed mandolins constructed more similarly to guitars. Finally, in the 1920s, Lloyd Loar created the F5 mandolin, with its longer neck and F holes. These new instruments were built to project and fill a concert hall, though they were ill-timed – the mandolin orchestra craze was fading and not ’til Bill Monroe picked up one of those instruments from a barbershop in Florida in the ’30s did they come back into their own. Since then, bluegrass mandolinists the world over have played these instruments or copies thereof. I play an instrument by John Monteleone, who started innovating on Lloyd Loar’s design in the 1980s – and so the tradition continues.

My new album, Encyclopedia Mandolinnica, turned into a survey of Western and Northern mandolin styles quite quickly. It’s very much been shaped by these inspiring musicians who were very kindly up for playing a duet with me. We go on a real journey through bluegrass both progressive and traditional, old-time, jazz, classical, and Scottish trad. The chance to get to work with these heroes of mine has been such a pleasure and invoked several “pinch me” moments. One of the most beautiful things was getting to see how everyone approached our little 8-stringed instrument so uniquely. I learned something from playing with and working alongside each of the mandolinists that agreed to be a part of the project!

In putting together this playlist I thought about my personal inspirations as well as the mandolin’s place in musical cultures across the world. It ranges from hardcore bluegrass, to Brazilian choro, over to Scottish trad – with lots of things in the middle. It mostly features folks you can hear on Encyclopedia Mandolinnica. I hope you enjoy my guided tour of the mandolin! – Ethan Setiawan

“Victoria” – Ethan Setiawan & Mike Marshall

Mike is a legend of the mandolin. He was an early member of the David Grisman Quintet and went on to collaborate with Darol Anger, among others. He helped write the book on progressive acoustic music and mandolin styles therein. This tune of mine falls within that realm and Mike was the perfect person to play it with.

“Shoulda Seen It Comin’” – Mike Marshall & Chris Thile

Mike also duetted with this young guy Chris Thile, whom you may have heard of. The live record that this cut is from is one of my very favorite recorded mandolin performances. Both mandolinists are at the top of their game. This tune was in my ear quite a bit when writing the previous tune, which maybe you can hear?

“There Will Never Be Another You” – Don Stiernberg

Don is one of the world’s foremost practitioners of jazz mandolin – a combination of words you might have never thought you’d hear. He studied with the great Jethro Burns of Homer & Jethro before forging his own path forward into a style where few mandolinists have ventured. Don was a teacher of mine during high school and it was great fun to get to be in the studio together for Encyclopedia Mandolinnica.

“Jiguaraña” – Ethan Setiawan & Maurizio Fiore Salas

Venezuela has a rich and beautiful mandolin tradition that not many folks are aware of. This tune is a co-write between myself and Maurizio. We took a jig (a Celtic form in 6/8) that I came up with and Maurizio had the bright idea of putting it over a Venezuelan rhythm called guarana (also in 6/8). It’s always a joy to play with Maurizio, he challenges me in the right ways.

“Wonderful” – Kinnaris Q (Laura-Beth Salter)

Laura-Beth is at the forefront of the Scottish trad revolution in Glasgow, Scotland. This track by her band Kinnaris Q puts the mandolin front and center – when she takes the tune at 1:52 check out the facile right hand triplets! We co-direct the Glasgow Mandolin Retreat as well and it’s always great to get a tune with LB.

“Blue Grass Stomp” – Bill Monroe

This is where it all started for a lot of us. Bill Monroe, along with Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt, in the ’40s had something electric and powerful, so much so that in large part bluegrass has been unchanged since then.

“New Cimarron” – Matt Flinner

Matt Flinner is one of my favorite mandolinists out there. One of the many things that strikes me about his playing is how good it feels. Everything is placed so precisely and beautifully. He also writes great tunes that beautifully synthesize lots of things we love about bluegrass, old-time, and jazz. This is one of my favorite tunes of his.

“Golden” – Ethan Setiawan

In a similar tradition to the last tune, this is my take on a progressive “new acoustic” tune. Darol Anger on the fiddle here, he produced this album and it was such a joy to work with him on it.

“O Voo Da Mosca” – Jacob Do Bandolim

While bluegrass was developing up north, another mandolinist was fusing styles down south. Way down south. In short, choro is a fusion of classical forms with jazz harmony and Afro-Brazilian rhythms – similar on the page to ragtime. Jacob Do Bandolim (which translates to Jacob the mandolin, amazing) wrote many tunes that became staples of the style and was a virtuosic mandolinist to boot.

“Saint Cecilia Caprice” – Hamilton De Holanda

Hamilton De Holanda is the Chris Thile of Brazil. Amazing technically and a great musical mind. He wrote a double album of caprices and made the music public on his website, as well. Every mandolinist reading this: go download them, now!

“Salt Spring” – John Reischman

The greatest modern jam standard of our time! John is another great tune writer. He also gets the most beautiful sound out of the mandolin.

“Shetland Jigs” – Hildaland (Ethan Setiawan)

My own contribution to the Scottish trad lexicon from my duo with fiddler Louise Bichan, Hildaland. These are a couple nice jigs from Shetland. I’m playing mandola here, but I’ve tuned the highest string down a step and put on a capo so that the strings are tuned DAEA. This is inspired by the fiddle, which is crosstuned – common in old-time but not so common in Great Britain. We thought it was a cool connection to draw for our duo which goes between those styles at will.

“Canon at the Twelfth in Counterpoint at the Fifth” – Caterina Lichtenberg & Mike Marshall

Caterina is one of the greatest classical mandolinists to ever live. There have been vital classical mandolin traditions going on this whole time in Italy and Germany, which is so cool to see. Classical music is being made on the mandolin at very high levels and being taught as well.

“Queen of the Earth, Child of the Stars” – Sharon Gilchrist & John Reischman

A beautiful old-time tune, played so beautifully by Sharon on mandolin, John on mandola, and backed up by Scott Nygaard on guitar. I first heard this tune played late at night by Darol Anger and Bruce Molsky at Freshgrass a bunch of years ago now and it’s stuck with me ever since.

“Big Hill” – Ethan Setiawan & Andrew Marlin

Andrew has taken the mandolin scene by storm over the past several years with beautiful tunes and great trad bluegrass playing. Part of the thing that developed with this project was to write something that I thought might work well for each guest – not to explicitly write something that sounded like theirs, but to draw a little inspiration. I think this tune captured something there and I love the way Andrew accompanies the tune.


Photo Credit: Louise Bichan

50 Years of Special Consensus

It is positively astounding to me that Special Consensus has been running the road for 50 years. When bass player Marc Edelstein and I decided to make the band a full-time entity, we thought it would be for two or three years and then we would return to “normal life.” Instead of getting the music bug out of my system over the years, traveling throughout our country and around the world only intensified my love of playing bluegrass music.

Been All Around This World is Special C’s 20th band record and our eighth on the Compass Records label. Our wonderful producer Alison Brown has helped raise the bar for the band – resulting in the band receiving eight IBMA Awards and two GRAMMY nominations.

Reflecting on the band’s golden anniversary, I looked back over our body of recordings and selected 15 songs that we are especially proud of – songs that received awards, that did very well on bluegrass music airplay charts, or consistently received (and continue to receive) requests at our live shows.

I appreciate this opportunity to present these songs from every era of the Special Consensus. It has been an honor to play banjo alongside such phenomenal musicians on these songs. I hope you will enjoy! – Greg Cahill, banjo player and founder

“Dream of Me” (1983; not on Spotify)

“Dream of Me” appeared on our Blue Northerns recording, released in 1983, and featured Chris Jones on guitar/lead vocal, Paul Kramer on mandolin/vocals, John Rice on electric bass/vocals and fiddle, and yours truly on banjo. Yes, electric bass! We were quite happy with the band sound for this second band recording – and who would not be happy when hearing Chris Jones sing every time we performed.

“Freight Train Boogie” (originally released 1986, re-recorded for 2000’s 25th Anniversary)

Released in 1986, this title song featured Dennis White on guitar, harmonica, and lead vocals, our honorary band member Ollie O’Shea on fiddle, Tim Wilson on mandolin/vocals, Scott Salak on acoustic bass, and yours truly on banjo/vocals. This song was requested for years, and we were very honored that our friend, the great Jethro Burns, wrote the liner notes for the album.

“Fourteen Carat Mind” (1991, re-recorded for 2010’s 35)

From our Hey, Y’all release, this track featured the fabulous singing of Dallas Wayne and always received a strong response. The song also featured Dallas on bass, Marty Marrone on guitar/vocals, Al Murphy on fiddle, Don Stiernberg on mandolin, and yours truly on banjo/vocals. The folks in Finland admired his voice as much as we did and lured him to their country to record and perform after hearing him on tour there with Special C. He and his wife lived there for seven years.

“Ten Mile Tennessee” (1996)

From our Strong Enough To Bend release in 1996, this featured the smooth lead vocals of guitarist Bobby Burns with Diana Phillips on bass, Colby Maddox on mandolin, and yours truly on banjo. This beautifully written song continues to be requested at our shows to this day and we are always happy to sing it.

“Another Day With The Blues” (1998)

“Another Day With The Blues” was brought to the band by Andrea Roberts, our bass player at the time, and she sang lead on the song that appeared on the 1998 Our Little Town recording. Chris Walz played guitar/vocals, Colby Maddox played mandolin, and I played banjo/vocals. We recorded the song in the key of C and Andrea wanted me to use the capo at 5th fret, but I did not want to do that. She felt it would sound much grassier, given the melody and flow of the song, so I relented, put the capo on the 5th fret, and it was the first Special C song to ever chart on the Bluegrass Unlimited Top 30 songs chart.

“Carolina in the Pines” (2010)

This was a massive “hit” song for Special C, from our 2010 Pinecastle Records release, Route 10. Josh Williams sang lead and played mandolin, Jamie Clifton played guitar/vocals, Tim Dishman played bass/vocals, and I played banjo. This song received so much attention that we are still referred to as the “Route 10 Band” – and we not only keep the song in the band stage repertoire, we recorded it again for the new Been All Around This World release.

“Today Has Been A Lonesome Day” (2005)

This song was always a show-stopper when Ron Spears sang it at the top of his lungs, usually at the end of a set. Although there were several songs on this 2005 Everything’s Alright recording that consistently received requests, Ron’s amazing singing on this song made it an event! Justin Carbone is on guitar, Tres Nugent is on bass, and I played banjo.

“Wild Montana Skies” (2014)

Included on the 2014 Compass Records Country Boy, A Bluegrass Tribute To John Denver recording, this track features mandolin player Rick Faris singing with Claire Lynch. Dustin Benson played guitar/vocals, Dan Eubanks played bass, Rock Ickes played Dobro, and I played banjo. This song became a favorite of our fans and received a lot of airplay. It also won the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Recorded Event of the Year award.

“She Took The Tennessee River” (2018)

This track comes from the 2018 Compass Records recording Rivers and Roads, which won the IBMA Award for Album of the Year and was GRAMMY-nominated for Best Bluegrass Album. Becky Buller and Jon Weisberger wrote the song and Becky played fiddle on the track along with Nick Dumas on mandolin/vocals, Rick Faris on guitar/vocals, Dan Eubanks on bass, and I played banjo. We were honored to have Bobby Osborne join us for a verse on this one.

“Squirrel Hunters” (2018)

Also from our Rivers and Roads album, “Squirrel Hunters” was one of John Hartford’s favorite tunes to play and, with the help of his daughter Katie, our producer Alison Brown, and some technology, John introduces the tune and plays the first fiddle solo on the recording. Rick Faris is featured on guitar, Nick Dumas on mandolin, and Dan Eubanks on bass along with Alison Brown on twin banjo and 10 String Symphony (Christian Sedelmyer and Rachel Baiman) on fiddles. This recording won the IBMA Collaborative Recording of the Year Award.

“Alberta Bound” (2023)

From our Great Blue North Compass Records release, this song spent a few months in the number 1 position on the Bluegrass Unlimited Top 30 Bluegrass Songs chart and shared the very first IBMA Video of the Year Award with Authentic Unlimited. We consistently receive requests for this song that features mandolin player Michael Prewitt on lead vocal with Greg Blake on guitar/ vocals, Dan Eubanks on bass/vocals, me on banjo along with our Canadian friends Ray Legere on fiddle and Pharis and Jason Romero, John Reischman, Patrick Sauber, and Trisha Gagnon on vocals. The song also won the IBMA Collaborative Event of the Year Award.

“Snowbird” (2023)

Also from the Great Blue North, this recording is one of our most requested songs and also appeared on the Bluegrass Unlimited Top 30 Bluegrass Songs chart. The recording features IBMA 2023 Male Vocalist of the Year Greg Blake on lead vocals and guitar, Michael Prewitt on mandolin/vocals, Dan Eubanks on bass/vocals, Claire Lynch on harmony vocals, and me on banjo. Beautiful song!

“What Am I Doin’ Hangin’ ‘Round” (2025)

Alison thought this Michael Martin Murphey song made popular by The Monkees would be a great showcase for Chris Jones’ smooth vocals. All of us loved the idea and we had a blast in the studio recording this one with Greg Blake trading lead vocals with Chris, and Rick Faris and Dallas Wayne joining Dan and Brian on harmony vocals.

“I’m Always On A Mountain When I Fall” (2025)

We really wanted to showcase Dallas Wayne’s fabulous vocals on the new project and what better way to do that than by featuring him on a song made popular by Merle Haggard. Dallas sang in country music clubs in Chicago for years before joining Special C and he left the band to lead a country band in Finland. When he stepped up to the mic and launched into the first verse, we all were literally spellbound. It was truly amazing to watch and hear him so effortlessly deliver such an incredible performance.

“Wish We Had Our Time Again” (2025) 

This was the grand finale of sorts for our 50th anniversary album. Even though it’s about a past relationship, the sentiment in this John Hartford-penned song somehow seemed perfect for us. Standing next to former bandmates Chris, Dallas, Robbie, Rick, Josh and Ashby in the studio – people who have remained best friends over so many years – along with my more recent best friends Dan, Greg, and Brian, literally brought tears to my eyes. Made me realize how fortunate I have been to have these phenomenal musicians and producer Alison as best friends forever in my 50 years of making music “all around this world.”


Photo Credit: Karen Murphy